DANCING MASTER.

How each one throws his legs about,
Each getting on as best he may;

The crooked jumps, and jumps the stout,
And nought of how it looks ask they.

FIDDLER.

This ruffian pack hate one another,
Each gladly would destroy her brother;
The pipe doth them together hold,
As Orpheus' lyre the beasts of old.

DOGMATIC.

My views admit no wandering,

Or sceptical or critical;

The devil, indeed, must be something,

Else how could devils be at all.

IDEALIST.

In my mind, the fantastical

Hath far too lordly rule;

If I indeed should be the all,
To-day I am a fool.

REALIST.

Being plagues me exceedingly,

And must torment me horridly;

Here for the first time stand I

On my feet not steadily.

SUPERNATURALIST.

The scene I with much pleasure view,
And in this people much delight;
From devils I conclusions true,

About good spirits, can draw aright.

SCEPTIC.*

The flames they follow, close upon

Its trace, and think the treasure near;

Devil and cavilt rhyme alone,

At the right spot am I here.

CAPELL MEISTER.

Grasshoppers and bull frogs, those

Accursed amateurs,

Snout of fly and midges' nose,
The orchestra is yours.

* Dogmatic, Idealist, Realist, Supernaturalist, Sceptic, are the representatives of Theological schools.

+ Auf Teufel reimt der Zweifel nur, literally, Only Doubt rhymes to Devil.'

CLEVER ONES.

Sansouci, they christen so

The roaring host of jolly blades;
No more upon our feet we go,

And so we walk upon our heads.

CLUMSY ONES.

Many a bit we spunged of yore,
But all that is passed and gone ;*
Our shoes in dancing we outwore,
Now on naked soles we run.

WILDFIRES.

From the bog do we advance,

Whence we first have sprung;

Here see us gallants in the dance,
The gayest of the throng.

FALLING STAR.

I shot from the heaven afar,

In fiery glory of a star;

Here long in the grass have lain,

Who will help me up again.

*Gott befohlen, recommended to God, i. c. bid adieu to.

THE MASSIVE ONES.

Room, room, and roundabout,
Down the grass it bears;
Spirits are coming, spirits stout,
Right plump limbs are theirs.

PUCK.

Do not tread so heavily,

Like young elephants;

To be the stoutest this day of joy, The sturdy Puck himself presents.

ARIEL.

If nature, loving, bright, and gay,
If the spirit wings bestows,
Follow my light track to-day,

To where blows the mountain rose.

ORCHESTRA.

Pianissimo.

Drifting clouds and vapours white,

Burst above us into light;

Breeze in leaves, and winds that hover

O'er the rushes. All is over!

GLOOMY DAY.-FIELD.

FAUST.

MEPHISTOPHELES.

FAUST.

In wretchedness !-despairing !-long wandering miserably about the world-and now a prisoner ! The affectionate, unhappy creature, shut up in a dungeon, as an evil-doer, for hideous tortures! To this! this!-Treacherous-worthless Spirit! and thou hast concealed it from me! Stay, only stay! Roll thine hellish eyes, in thy rancour! Stay and insult me with thine unbearable presence! A prisoner!-in irreparable misery! Given over to evil spirits, and to condemning, unfeeling men! And whilst thou wert lulling me in tasteless dissipations, thou concealedst from me her accumulating misery, and let her perish without help.

MEPHISTOPHELES.

She is not the first!

Y